and several scale-leaves are seen on the lower part of the bud. [Illustration: Fig. 377. _Cycas circinalis._ From a photograph taken by Mr A. Malins Smith at Teldeniya (Ceylon).] [Illustration: Fig. 378. _Cycas revoluta_, as grown by Japanese horticulturalists. (After Wieland.)] [Illustration: Fig. 379. _Encephalartos horridus._] [Illustration: Fig. 380. _Cycas circinalis._ Stem showing alternate zones of leaf-bases (F) and scale-leaf bases (S). (From the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.)] [Illustration: Fig. 381. A. _Cycas revoluta_, megasporophylls. B. _Zamia Loddigesii_, branched stem.] All recent Cycads are dioecious. The reproductive shoots, except the megasporophylls of _Cycas_—which have departed to a less extent than those of other genera from the foliage-leaf plan (fig. 381, A; fig. 392, A–C) and are borne in a terminal cluster through which the stem subsequently pushes its way—consist of a varying number of micro- or mega-sporophylls in dense spirals on the axis of an elongated or oval strobilus (figs. 386, B, 393, 394). The microsporophylls are occasionally verticillate[4]. The strobili are sometimes though rarely branched[5] and generally but by no means invariably[6] terminal on the main stem which branches sympodially[7]. A striking example of lateral strobili has recently been described by Chamberlain[8] who figures a stem of _Macrozamia Moorei_ with fertile shoots wedged among the persistent petiole-bases, a condition very similar to that in the Mesozoic Bennettitales. Pearson has also described clear cases of laterally-borne cones in _Encephalartos._ _Cycas_ exhibits two kinds of branching, the female plants being monopodial while in the male the branching is sympodial. The microspores are produced in sporangia grouped in more or less well defined sori (figs. 389, A; 392, E–G). There is no definite annulus, but in the occurrence of groups of thick-walled cells some microsporangia recall those of certain ferns[9]. The ovules vary considerably in size, sometimes exceeding 5 cm. in diameter: there are usually two on each megasporophyll (figs. 393, C; 394; 395, 1_d_) but in most species of _Cycas_ (fig. 392, B) and occasionally in other genera the number is larger[10]. A thick integument encloses the nucellus with which it is fused except in the apical region (fig. 396, A, B). Below the comparatively long micropylar tube is a well-developed pollen-chamber (fig. 396, B′, _p_), a striking feature of Cycadean ovules, immediately above the megaspore; the latter is filled with prothallus-tissue and bears a small apical group of archegonia on the floor of a depression (fig. 396, A–B′). In _Microcycas_[11] as many as 200 archegonia are recorded—a very exceptional case—and these are not confined to the apical region, though only the apical archegonia are functional. Each archegonium is characterised by a very large oval egg-cell and a much reduced neck[12]. The microspores usually produce a single prothallus-cell, a